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We returned to Mallorca. Life settled again into its lazy, peaceful routine. The fresh, sweet-smelling, ozone of our Island of Calm, soon banished from our nostrils; the nauseating odor of pestilential class hatred which permeated the streets of distant Madrid. Those alarming incidents of our visit now seemed scenes from an improbable nightmare.
In consequence, we were shocked when one of our servants, returning from her monthly weekend to her village, brought tales of the burning of Churches in several parts of the island. In her village, the padre had received a threatening note demanding his immediate retirement. The same night he had closed hie church and left. The peasants shook their fists and were pleased with themselves. Their village was noted for its Left tendencies. Russia would, no doubt, hear of their valor and reward them!
The following day, several of the women began to wonder what would happen if someone died. There would be no one to administer the last sacraments; they would be certain to go to Hell! Their children could not be baptized, their young people could not be married! In terror they fled after the padre and begged him to return.
In Esporlas, another Left village. they also decided they would burn their church. They marched importantly to the entrance door. They hesitated. No one, it seemed, wished the honor of being the first to desecrate the abode of their Saints. The statue of their Madonna had been known to work miracles! She would be angry. No one now wished to lay despoiling hands on her sacred replica. They conferred. At last they reached a decision. Reverently they removed their caps and entered the church. With care they lifted down the sacred statue, the altar pieces and paintings; with care they carried them to the house of the padre. The Virgin would surely not wreak vengeance on them now! They were safe to proceed. With enthusiasm they burnt the church. Viva Russia!
In our own village of Peguera we knew there were many communists; we refused to take seriously their rather childish, illiterate enthusiasm. The little café and adjoining tienda, where we bought our vegetables, was their meeting place and club. One evening when we passed for a walk they were shouting, "We demand the release of Comrade Prestes. We demand the release of Comrade Prestes." We stopped and asked who Comrade Prestes was? They looked from one to another, each hoping someone else would answer; it became obvious they did not know.
We smiled. It had never occurred to them to ask who Comrade Prestes was? Or why they should be demanding the release of a Brazilian communist in far-off South America. It was just one of their most effective slogans like their other favorite, "Our children are starving, we demand bread and a living wage!" The fact that our leading communist, the little fat café owner, was not only a rich man with farming properties but also the father of a large and, from appearances, rather overfed family, did not seem to them at all amusing.
Luis Carlos Prestes (January 3, 1898 - March 7, 1990)
They glared at us in silence. Their importance as brave communists was being doubted. We smiled. Their looks said, 'Well, wait and see!' They muttered and looked sullen. One more valiant than the rest again repeated feebly, "We demand the release of Comrade Prestes." He received no encouragement and subsided into an embarrassed silence. We moved on.
On the afternoon of July fifteenth, my husband and I went as usual to the village, for the mail. When the daily paper was unfolded we were startled into horrified silence by the headlines, CALVO SOTELO ASSASSINATED! Calvo Sotelo, the leader of the Renovacion Española! The man who was to head the new movement of the Militar and Falanges to a glorious victory! The man who was to save Spain for the Spaniards, who was to lead new Spain forward to resurrections and life! Stabbed and shot by the new sovietic government assassins! It was incredible!
José Calvo Sotelo (May 6, 1893 – July 13, 1936)
We couldn't adjust our thoughts......Again, poor Dolfuss! Calvo Sotelo, the Spanish Dolfuss!
Engelbert Dolfuss: (October 4,1892 – July 25,1934)
What would happen now? We were not ready! For weeks, months, young Primo had had difficulty in restraining his impatient young patriots; would he be able to hold them back? Had the time for action come at last? We jumped to the car and rushed for Palma. Everywhere we saw quiet, anxious groups. Everyone was asking the same question, "What would happen now?"
Saturday morning we went again to Palma to attend the Requiem mass for Calvo Sotelo, to be held n the lovely old Church of San Francisco. At the funeral services n Madrid there had been a demonstration; many had been killed. Would there be a demonstration here? It was obvious, from the expressions on the faces of the men, that tensely their hopes favored that probability. They were longing for a chance, an excuse to unleash their rage, their indignation; to retaliate for this last insupportable, cowardly atrocity.
The Church was crowded. In a clearing in front of the altar we could see the draped catafalque lit by many candles. The benches in the foreground, as I expected, were mostly filled with the bowed heads of women n their black mantillas. To my surprise, they were insignificant in comparison. I had not expected to see the masses of men, young men, Falangalistas and Carlists, that were crushed, standing on each others' toes, into every available corner; the overflow extending through the carved Gothic portals and out into the square.
At a given moment in the service the entire congregation lit the long slender candles that, I now noticed for the first time, were held in every hand. My husband whispered that this ritual was unknown on the peninsula, it was a custom individual to Mallorca. The musical chants, the incense, the muttered prayers, vibrant with emotions in the soft glow of thousands of small, flickering lights, contrasted strangely, I thought, with the almost suffocating atmosphere of strained explosive tension and watchful glances that darted from side-to-side.
When the services were over, the women were told to keep back while the men pushed through into the rapidly filling plaza. On all sides they whispered. the electric awareness increased, hands stole cautiously to suspiciously bulging pockets. There might be a demonstration, a bomb thrown, but they were ready. They might be caught, but not unprepared!
Slowly, the tension realized, the expressions of fierce determination faded, the women came out into the sunlight, little groups formed; apparently casual conversations were resumed. The low buzz of mid-day human flies settled comfortingly over the warm, still square. With many, "Adios, adios, hasta luego," the groups disbursed. Our island, seemingly was again calm. For the moment nothing had happened. It brought, however, the realization; we had not known there were so many falanges in Mallorca.
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Luiz Carlos Prestes: This man was the most prominent leader of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB). His military background and role in the famous Prestes Column meant that his image was one that could be effectively exploited by the party. However, his uncertain political antecedents also meant that he came under suspicion within the party, especially in the early years of his allegiance in the early 1930s. This monumental image the PCB could claim a ‘commanding hero’ to be admired and followed, but found this creation difficult to control within the Bolshevik party model. Prestes, conversely, used the party’s representation of his leadership to support his political authority while losing control of the ways in which his image was exploited.
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José Calvo Sotelo: This Spanish politician was the Minister of Finance during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and a leading figure during the Spanish Second Republic. During this period. he became an important part of Spanish Renovation, a monarchist movement. Calvo Sotelo's assassination in July 1936 by the PSOE was an immediate prelude to the triggering of the Spanish military coup of July 1936 that was plotted since February 1936, the partial failure of which marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
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Engelbert Dolfuss: This Austrian politician served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government. This crisis culminated in the Self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament, a coup sparked by resignation of the presiding officers of the National Council. Suppressing the Socialist movement in the Austrian Civil War and later banning the Austrian Nazi Party, he cemented the rule of Austrofascism through the First of May Constitution in 1934. Later that year, Dollfuss was assassinated as part of a failed coup attempt by Nazi agents. Natacha refers to his assassination when expressing her shock at Calvo Sotelo's assassination.
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Island of Calm: It is in this portion of the essay that Natacha begins to realize the number of communists on Mallorca, that the division in parties has affected not only the actual mainland of Spain, but their little paradise of Palma, or as she refers to it, their 'Island of Calm,' This is from a1912 literary reference.
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